1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a wire grid polarizer and a method of manufacturing the same and, more particularly, to a method of easily manufacturing a wire grid polarizer having a large-sized area without using a photolithography process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polarization characteristics of light are used in many applications to conveniently control light emitted from light sources. For example, in a case of a display device using a liquid crystal display (LCD), liquid crystal molecules operate as a shutter to change a polarized orientation of linear light so as to transmit or intercept light. However, in general, light emitted from a light source is non-polarized light. Thus, polarizers are provided on both surfaces of an LCD. Also, an optical communication device shows a great difference in the efficiency of coupling to an external passive optical device depending on polarization characteristics.
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a related art wire grid polarizer. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional wire grid polarizer includes a transparent substrate 1 and a plurality of nano wires 3 which are arranged at predetermined periods on the transparent substrate 1.
The wire grid polarizer having the above-described structure intercepts polarized light parallel to a longitudinal direction A of the nano wires 3 and transmits light polarized toward a direction B perpendicular to the longitudinal direction A.
Here, a width of the nano wires 3 is sufficiently shorter than a wavelength λ of light incident on the related art wire grid polarizer. Also, a pitch between the adjacent nano wires 3 is smaller than λ/2.
If such a wire grid polarizer is manufactured using a photolithography process, the photolithography process must be controllable in the range less than approximately 100 nm. Thus, it is difficult to manufacture the wire grid polarizer to have a large-sized area.
A wire grid polarizer can also be manufactured using a method of manufacturing, stamping, and reproducing a master mold using an electron-beam (E-beam) and laser interference and then depositing a metal without using a photolithography process. However, a large amount of time is required to manufacture the master mold. Thus, there is a need for a method to properly manufacture a large-sized wire grid polarizer.